The environmental debate focuses on complex subjects, about which contradictory interests confront themselves and different types of knowledge contribute to scientific and political controversies. But the temporality of scientific controversies is not the same as that of politics. So, uncertainty is produced, because specialized knowledge is not able to close de debate, but, frequently, finishes by opening it to values, to reflexivity and not, necessarily, to agreement. This article aims at discussing the conditions for scientific autonomy to be exercised in the field of forces where political and knowledge conflicts on environmental impacts are being developed.
Environmental conflicts; Scientific field; Political field; Development; Knowledge conflicts